Mary Sue
by flyingostriches
Summary: Lily Evans has had James Potter at her feet for the past two years, and now a Mary Sue stands between them. Only when she can't have James does Lily realize her feelings, and has to fight for what could have been before. FIGHT THE CANON BUTCHERS!
1. Broken

**Disclaimer:** If I owned these characters, I'd be rolling in all y'all's money instead of sitting here typing this. Thank you.

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**Chapter One**

**Broken**

Lily Evans banged her head against the carriage window she shared with James Potter.

It was her seventh year here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had loved almost every moment of it, from the Halloween feasts to the Great Hall's Christmas trees to the Hogsmeade trips to the exams.

But she had not loved the moments spent with James Potter.

In their first year, he turned her hair green. Second year, he read her diary to the whole Gryffindor common room. Third year, he made her face break out in blemishes that even Madam Pomfrey spent weeks trying to get rid of. In fourth year, he used a spell so that her robes blew up so high that her knickers were revealed to everyone in Hogsmeade.

And those weren't even the worst.

In fifth year, he asked her out. And that was the way of things since then.

Not a week passed in the past two years without him asking her to Hogsmeade at least three times. She always refused. And the pranks kept coming, on top of that.

And now, on her first day of seventh year, the day she wanted to be perfect, she was stuck in a carriage with him. And not only that. She was made the Head Girl. And he was the Head Boy.

He was talking to her, but she didn't hear any of it. There was a roaring in her ears, the kind you get when you're dreading what's to come. And Lily dreaded the whole year to come.

"Evans?" James reached over and prodded her arm, and she jumped in alarm, turning to glower at him with fierce green eyes.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped. "Don't touch me."

He looked startled. "I mean, hey, if you don't want to know about what Sirius and I—"

"No, I don't particularly," Lily shot at him, returning to bumping her forehead on the window. It was a wild attempt to knock herself out before she had to stand anymore of James's mindless chatter.

"This looks fun. Can I play?" He threw his own head against the glass.

Lily stopped. He continued.

Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the wide double doors that were already clogged with an influx of students. Salvation was here.

Lily shot out, and James toppled from the carriage behind her, as he had been using the door to support himself. He rubbed his backside, watching her hurry students through the double doors that had been opened by Filch.

"Come on, no, _put that wand down_! Through the doors, you lot."

Once all the students were shepherded into the Hall, with minimal help from James, whose left buttock was still throbbing painfully, the two Heads entered, Lily striding determinedly in front of him. But James's long legs allowed him to sail forward to walk beside her.

"Evans, Evans, Evans…" He almost sang it. Lily bit back her nasty reply, for Professor McGonagall beckoned to them from the small chamber beside the Great Hall that the first years would soon be taken into.

"Good evening, Miss Evans, Mr. Potter," the professor said, her eyes roaming over James with almost a sense of distaste. It seemed that the Headmaster had not given the staff very detailed reasons as to why he had chosen the boy for such a position.

Lily listened attentively as McGonagall went into a lecture about school policy and how they were supposed to be roll models for all the students. Curfew for them was eleven, and they patrolled the halls on every school night, and they could take points and give detentions, and they had special privileges and were expected to behave according to their age.

"…And there are Heads bedrooms in Gryffindor Tower, if you take a left once entering through the portrait hole. The password to Gryffindor Tower is _Leoviscus_, and I've already told your prefects. That is all. The first years are just arriving." McGonagall hurried them into the Great Hall, straightened her pointed hat, and went to the still open double doors in the Entrance Hall to greet new students.

"So, mind telling me what she just said?" James asked Lily casually as they walked towards Gryffindor's table. The Hall was lit up with thousands of floating candles, as always, and even in their seventh year, the two were still impressed by the sight.

"Yes, Potter, I do mind," she growled.

"Would you mind going out with me, then?"

Lily whirled around to face him, her long red hair flying up to smack him in the face. "Potter, leave me alone! I don't want to have anything to do with you. We're going to be together a lot this year for Heads stuff, but I don't want to talk with you besides. You have done nothing but pester me since we were eleven, and it has got to stop. Stop asking me out, because I hated you at the end of last year, and—surprise!—I still hate you. So go find some other girl who is willing to rendezvous in the broom closet with you. Because I'm not."

Lily turned to take a seat beside her friends, leaving a broken James behind.

Sirius Black stood and flung an arm around James. "Tough break, man. But you know how girls are. By tomorrow she'll probably be in love with you." He led his friend to a chair next to himself, with the other two Marauders across the table.

James didn't have time to reply, for just then the first years entered, Professor McGonagall leading them. They looked as small and helpless and frightened as always, stumbling on their journey towards the staff table. But there was one at the very end of the line whose head was at least seven inches above the rest.

The one who was taller than the others was a girl who looked like she could be a sixth or seventh year. She wasn't supposed to be there!

But James hardly cared, for she met his eyes, and he was stunned. Her eyes were a deeper blue than he had ever seen before, so deep that he could tell what color they were from even a few feet away. She had a mass of long, silvery blonde hair that fell in waves all the way to her waist, and was probably the most beautiful creature he had ever beheld. She made Lily look dull, and James thought the redhead girl was very unique looking. At least, up till now.

James wasn't the only one who noticed her. Every single other boy in the Hall had his eyes locked upon various other parts of her, the most popular being the two bulges in the front of her robes that stood out even more than they would on any other occasion as she walked among the mostly flat-chested first-years.

The girls were disgusted.

Professor McGonagall reached the back of the Hall, just below the Staff table, and set a stool she had been carrying with her on the floor and placed an old, patched hat on top of it. The girls of the school watched it with attentiveness, while the boys still focused on the blonde girl.

After a wide rip in the brim of the hat opened and began to sing, James only caught small snatches, like '_Or you could be in Ravenclaw…_' The girl in the line of first-years also seemed to not be paying attention, as she scanned the Hall with interest, her eyes lingering on Sirius and James.

"Of course," Sirius muttered out of the corner of his mouth, nudging James with his elbow. "She's looking at us, best-looking chaps in the school. Ten Sickles for the one who snogs her first?"

"You have no class," James said, smirking. "Deal."

When the hat finished its song, James applauded along with the rest of the boys, pretending he had listened. Professor McGonagall's voice rang across the Great Hall, saying:

"When I call your name, come forward and place the hat on your head and wait for it to sort you in the correct house. You may then go to the table of your new house."

James waited for the girl to be Sorted. Apparently, her surname was near the end of the alphabet, because they were at the M's already and she had not yet been called forward. James was beginning to get impatient, when…

"Nelson, Gwen!"

The girl stepped forward and seated herself primly on the stool, a look of aversion crossing her face for a split second as she looked at the hat Professor McGonagall handed her before she placed it on her head.

James crossed his fingers. He saw that Sirius had clenched his fists. Every human being in the room who possessed testosterone (besides the staff) waited in anticipation. And then…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"YES!" James and Sirius leapt up in unison to applaud ferociously. Sirius whooped. The people in the Hall raised their eyebrows at the two, and James became aware that even the boys in the room turned to stare at them.

"Er, sorry." James sunk back into his seat, dragging Sirius down with him.

Finally, the Hall applauded for her, the boys of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin rather disappointedly, while the Gryffindor boys roared. The girl—Gwen—headed for James and Sirius and seated herself right between them.

The Sorting continued.

"Hello, I'm Sirius Black," Sirius said, holding out his hand for the girl to shake.

Gwen took his hand. "Hi! I'm Gwen Nelson. I come from America." She did possess an American accent.

"America, eh?" James took her hand and kissed it, first looking at Sirius maliciously, and then glancing and Lily to see if she was watching. Her eyes were fixed on the Sorting, and she showed no signs of caring about James or Gwen.

Damn.

"Yes. I come from Los Angeles, and I went to Cowmoles Academy of Magic. But I moved here with my aunt because my mother died when I was seven, and my father abused me after that."

James and Sirius exchanged glances, surprised at her openness.

"Er, sorry about that," James offered.

She kept talking as though she had not heard him. "But I took care of the animals at the local Muggle Humane Society to get my mind off things. My dad is a Muggle, see. The only reason I could go to Cowmoles was because my Grandma, my mother's mother—my Grandma's half veela, by the way—anyway, she was very fierce and told my father she would curse him for all eternity if he didn't let me go."

Intelligent people have a certain way of talking—a quickness of mind and an ease to get the right words out.

Gwen didn't talk like that.

Sirius didn't seem to have noticed the fact.

She kept rambling throughout the rest of the Sorting—about how she established the Quidditch Cheerleading Team at Cowmoles and became the captain, about her love of animals, about her veela heritage. James was not surprised by the fact that her great-grandmother was a veela; he knew she was almost inhumanly beautiful. But he thought she might be a bit more intelligent, and found that her talking was uninteresting, with the occasional stupid giggle to break the monotony.

"…And when I was finally allowed to become an Animagus this summer after I came of age, my dad—"

"Whoa! You're an Animagus!" James was roused from his thoughts of Lily and stared at Gwen with amazement. "What animal form are you?"

He almost knew the answer before she said it. "Unicorn!" she replied brightly. James sunk back into his thoughts, thoroughly depressed.

_Of course_. He suppressed a snort. _Unicorn._

"They're just so happy and fun, and..."

At last, Dumbledore stood as McGonagall took the Sorting Hat and stool away. James didn't hear what he said, as he was picturing what it might feel like to kiss Lily. In fact, he had already devised an entire broom cupboard scene for the two of them before the food appeared.

Then, he ate. Because not even Evans could stand between him and treacle pudding.

Gwen droned on some more, but this time he didn't even bother listening. All she wanted to talk about were the animals she took care of at the Muggle Humane Society.

James just wanted Lily to feed him treacle pudding from a spoon.

He looked over at her. She didn't even offer him a glance, just asked her friend Rosie to pass the boiled potatoes, brushing a bit of fiery hair behind one ear. She laughed at something a boy across the table said to her.

How could she laugh when she had just crushed James Potter's heart?

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**A/N: **Who else is tired of Mary Sues coming through and ruining all the OTPs! Fight back against the canon butcherers!

Anyway.

This isn't the start I'd hoped for, but starts are never that good for me. I actually had two chapters written of this plot before (so if you've read something similar, don't freak and think I'm some psycho plot-thief), but it was no good, so I started over.

I promise, it will get better, and hopefully funnier. I have trouble getting humor down on paper, so bear with me. I swear it'll improve.

Virtual cookies for reviewers!

-Carrie!


	2. Banana Pancakes

**Disclaimer:** All I own are the box on the side of the road I live in and this computer with Internet access that I hook up to the only electric outlet in my box.

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**Chapter Two**

**Banana Pancakes**

Next morning, which turned out to be very foggy and gray, Lily came from the Head Girl's dormitory and headed straight for the Great Hall, feeling a bit uneasy. She noticed James sitting at the Gryffindor table, picking at his breakfast, and felt something in her chest contract.

_She felt sympathetic for James Potter._

Okay, so she had told him to go away, which was nothing. And worse, she had told him she hated him. But she didn't really hate him. He was funny sometimes, and he'd made her laugh before.

Now it didn't look like he'd be making anyone laugh for a while.

Her friend Rosie Rinehart, a tall brunette girl, spotted her and approached, a bowl of oatmeal in hand, as she had not been quite ready to abandon it yet.

"Have you apologized to him yet?" Rosie asked, taking a spoonful of oatmeal and "mmm"ing in delight. "I missed this stuff over the summer. Anyway, have you?"

Lily looked at her, affronted. "What made you think I was going to do that?"

"Come on, Lily, just look at the poor guy."

The two girls looked. He was reading his course schedule that McGonagall had just handed him.

"Er, he looks fine to me."

Just then, Gwen Nelson skipped—yes, _skipped_—over to James and seated herself next to him, chatting animatedly. Lily almost saw James's eyes flick in her direction for a nanosecond before he turned to Gwen, but she wouldn't have sworn it.

"Look, he's got that blonde git to talk to," Lily said, grumbling and finding a seat, Rosie following her.

The brunette girl raised an eyebrow at the two, who were now talking. "Have you met her?"

"Well, no." Lily rubbed her two front teeth over her bottom lip. "But what was it that Dumbledore said at the end of the feast last night?"

"That we have a new seventh-year student named Gwen Nelson, just Sorted into Gryffindor, blah, blah, and that she went to Cowmoles in America?"

"Right," came Lily's reply. "So you know what that means?"

"Er, no."

"Well, Cowmoles is known for its taking in really talented students."

"How in the name of You-Know-Who do you know that?"

"Well, I don't know, Rosie, I read books." Lily took her course schedule from McGonagall, who had finally made it to the end of their table after having an argument with Sirius about the state of his robes, which were on backwards.

"Professor, I mean, if we didn't have to get up at Merlin's arse crack of dawn…"

Gryffindor now had negative twenty points to start the term with.

"Well, I mean, so do I," Rosie argued. "Read books, I mean. I just don't read all of that nonsense. And what does it matter if she's talented?"

"It means," Lily said, looking at her friend seriously, "that she's one of those perfect girls who is going to have every male student here hanging all over her within hours."

"You're just judging people before you get to know them."

Lily's eyes roamed over her schedule, ignoring Rosie. "Potions, break, and Double Transfiguration."

"Tough luck," Rosie said, looking at her own and deciding to drop the subject. "I have a break now and Muggle Studies after."

"Still on for working in the Obliviator Headquarters?" Lily received a nod in reply. "So you pretty much get to sit around all year."

"Pretty much," Rosie responded. "It looks like everyone's heading on to class. See you at lunch." She took one last bite of oatmeal and added, "You should really take to heart about what I said about apologizing to Potter."

Lily grumbled something inaudible and threw her bag over her shoulder, heading towards the dungeons for Potions.

It was cool and musty down there, as always, and Lily was almost glad to be back. She had barely stepped over the threshold of the dungeon when she heard "Lily, m'lass!"

Professor Horace Slughorn bustled from behind his desk, next to which a large cauldron bubbled, emitting turquoise sparks at odd intervals.

"Morning, Professor," Lily said, finding a seat.

The portly wizard opened his mouth to say more, but just then the Marauders entered, Gwen Nelson in company, her arm through James's, talking amiably with him in her heavily American accent.

"And so I pulled this cat out of the tree, and took her home to keep her!"

James searched for something to say, but found that it was extremely difficult. Should he have said "You're a hero!" or "Go stick your head into the lake while I count to a quintillion"? He settled for just smiling at her, avoiding Lily's eyes, which he was sure were focused on him most malevolently.

He found that talking with Gwen was easier than he had originally thought. All he had to say was "I'm absolutely dashing" or "You're the most beautiful girl to walk the face of the earth," using a different wording each time, and she would agree and add on to it.

The two of them took the two seats at the table in front of Lily, while Remus seated himself beside the redhead, Sirius and Peter sitting behind.

Lily became sickeningly aware of how she was surrounded by Marauders.

"All right, Lily?" Remus asked kindly.

"All right. How about you?"

"A little weak. Full Moon was last Friday."

Lily had known about Remus being a werewolf and the other Marauders being Animagi ever since the beginning of sixth year, after James had put something in her dinner that made her burp up frogs for hours afterwards. That evening, when she had been heading back from the prefect's bathroom to the common room, she had seen all the Marauders but Remus stealing away through the corridors. She had followed them through secret passages she'd never seen before until the three were in the Entrance Hall, quietly opening the huge double doors and heading outside. Lily had finally decided that it was time to speak up, because if they were trying to run away from school, she had to stop them. Though astonished that she had managed to follow them this far, they had told her everything, and that it wasn't safe for her to go outside, and had made her swear that she would never tell. She had, but only for Remus's sake, as she would not have cared if the others had been expelled. Ever since then, Remus confided in her as well.

"I'm sorry." She offered him a smile before pulling her potions scales out of her bag as Professor Slughorn began to teach.

As the class progressed, Lily's mood became more and more sour as she had to listen to Gwen ramble on and on about her old friends, her Quidditch cheerleading squad, her great-grandmother, who was a veela (Lily was shaken by this news), the animals she'd rescued and taken to the Muggle Humane Society, her Animagus form (Lily was surprised by this even more—_At least she's legal_, the redhead thought with a snort), and just about everything else that was so wonderful about herself.

And worse, James seemed to actually _care_—he nodded and made sounds of agreement every once in a while. Lily almost chucked her entire potion at the back of that shiny blonde head, but she had worked so hard on it, and class was almost over. Although she did enjoy imagining what it might do to her hair.

"All right, time's up!" came Professor Slughorn's voice from the back of the room.

He began pacing among the students' potions, making sounds of approval or telling them what they had done wrong. Lily received praise for hers—"Excellent, excellent, no less than what I expected of you, Miss Evans!" But when he came to Gwen's, his mouth actually dropped open, for she had brewed the potion perfectly where Lily had not.

The rotund professor spent the next five minutes going on and on about how Cowmoles did indeed produce amazing students, and how she was the best potion brewer he had come across in a long time. "Right up there with Severus Snape," he said, nodding to the sullen-looking boy with greasy black hair sitting at a table in the back.

"What do you hope to be your profession after you graduate?" he asked her.

"A Healer," came Gwen's reply. "I just love helping people!"

Lily abstained from vomiting in her cauldron.

Finally, class was dismissed, and most of the Gryffindors trooped up to the common room for break. Lily was satisfied to hear that Gwen had Muggle Studies to get to.

At lunch, Lily spent the entire time complaining to Rosie about Gwen, and Rosie listened with a knowing smile on her face but did not make any comments. By the time Lily made it to Double Transfiguration, she had gotten herself so worked up that she was fuming.

In Transfiguration, a class Gwen was also in, Lily noted with deep annoyance, they began learning about human transfigurations (_Already!_ Lily thought).

"Now, I'm going to pair you all up, and you will be attempting to change your partner into a chimpanzee. I know that it sounds foolish, but since chimpanzees are the species most biologically built as we humans are…"

She gave them all the incantation and paired them up, and Lily was horrified to hear that she was partnered with James.

At least it wasn't Gwen.

Although she had sworn in fourth year that she would never hate anyone more than James Potter.

But she didn't hate him. He had made her laugh a few times before, and he had stuck up for her against Snape on more than one occasion.

Lily stuck with these happy thoughts as James approached her airily, not meeting her eyes. He exchanged only monosyllables with her as she discussed who should cast the spell first, and finally decided to let him go first, to get it over with.

_Oh, Merlin_, she thought as she stepped away from the desk, and James turned to her, finally meeting her eyes, his wand raised. _I'm allowing James Potter turn me in to a chimpanzee._

It wasn't that bad. Suddenly, she was much shorter and hairier, and then suddenly she was taller and herself again as he lifted the spell. James didn't bother with any monkey business—apparently she had knocked a little bit of sense into him, even if he did enjoy talking to annoying, perky, blonde part-veelas.

"Oh, outstanding, Mr. Potter! Twenty-five points to Gryffindor!" Professor McGonagall cried, rushing to them. "I knew you were splendid at Transfiguration, but _this_—I was just trying to see where you all stood…oh, excellent! Five more points to Gryffindor!"

Lily caught a flicker of a smile from James, but wasn't sure if it was directed to her. Anyway, she was still irritated with him.

Lily was unable to Transfigure James; he didn't grow more hair all over himself, get bigger ears, or change in any way. He didn't offer her any advice, either, as he normally would have, and she was glad of it, until McGonagall erupted into another bout of praise for Gwen, who had successfully Transfigured Peter.

Lily felt dirty and disgusted and wanted nothing more than to die and join Moaning Myrtle in the second-floor girls' loo.

She consoled herself by thinking that Peter was already pretty much built like a chimpanzee, and that it must not have been that difficult.

"Listen, Potter," Lily finally said as they packed up their things and filed out of the room once class ended. He was on his way out the door, the last one in the throng, but he stopped and didn't even turn around to look at her. It was just the two of them—McGonagall had left in a daze to talk to the Headmaster about James's splendid Transfiguration work—James standing in the doorway with his back to Lily, who was facing him with her books in her arms, eyes closed and wishing that she weren't apologizing to her least—sorry, _second_-least—favorite person in the world. "I just…wanted to apologize for yesterday. I didn't mean to be so hateful."

"Forget it," James said, finally turning to her and considering her. "Quidditch tryouts are next Saturday," he said suddenly.

"Er, what?"

"If you want to come. Gwen's going to try out. She's supposed to be an excellent Seeker."

"Oh. Gwen," Lily grunted. "Hope you two have fun, then. I have to, er, go…um, dinner. Bye." She pushed past James and strode down the hall determinedly, thinking only of how she wanted to wring perfect little Gwen Nelson's neck after ripping out her intestines and feeding them to Remus at the full moon.

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**A/N:** My second addition! If you all don't hate Gwen by now, please don't tell me, or else I might go drown myself. 

Virtual cookies for my very few reviewers! I'm throwing cookies out into cyberspace now.

This time, it will be virtual cake.

The title of this chapter comes from a Jack Johnson song-- "Banana Pancakes." Listen to his music, because he's awesome.

I'm out like Hagrid in a Miss America Pageant.


	3. Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

**Disclaimer:** I own anything you don't recognize as canon. But that isn't true if you're an idiot, so whatev.

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**Chapter Three**

**Sitting, Waiting, Wishing**

And so the next week went by. Every boy was in love with Gwen Nelson before the first day of term was over, and Gwen knew it. She had been asked to the first Hogsmeade trip (Saturday, October 31) over a hundred times, and she refused each.

"So, Prongs," Sirius began, lifting his head from his Potions essay to look at James, "gonna ask her out, mate?"

The Marauders were working on their homework on the second Thursday of term, gathered in the Gryffindor common room. James looked over at Gwen, who was chatting happily with her new friends (she had become popular very quickly), all of her finished homework stacked neatly beside her.

"You have no patience, Padfoot," came James's reply, and that was all he said on the matter.

"I would ask her to Hogsmeade," Sirius said casually, "but I've already found myself a date, Charlene Vance of Ravenclaw."

"I wonder how many have asked her so far." Peter wondered aloud, his Charms essay lying forgotten in front of him.

"I heard that you asked her," Sirius said amusedly, looking to his chubby friend.

Peter flushed and finally began scribbling on his parchment once more. Remus made a sound that lingered in the limbo between amusement and disapproval.

"Of course Moony thinks we're all babbling, bumbling bands of baboons," Sirius said, rolling his eyes and flipping his hair so that it caught the light magnificently. "I got that from McGonagall. Try saying it five times fast."

James and Peter tried, and failed.

"Well, it's only that she's overwhelmed the minds of most of the male population in this school," Remus replied, not looking up from his homework. "I thought that even you, Sirius, might like going with somebody more practical."

Sirius mouthed something to James, pointing at Remus and rolling his eyes, before continuing with his Potions essay.

Across the common room, a pair of vicious green eyes watched the Marauders from across the room over an upside-down Charms textbook, and a pair of keen ears that belonged to the head which also possessed the eyes listened, trying to catch the words over the noise of the room.

"I can barely hear," Lily murmured irritably to Rosie, who was immersed in her book titled _Being the Captain_ (Rosie, the Gryffindor Keeper, had been appointed the new Captain of the Quidditch team).

"Mmm," the brunette girl replied, turning a page. "If you can't hear, stop listening."

Lily tried settling down again, but to no avail. She threw her book down in frustration and said, "It's almost time to start patrolling anyway. I'll get an early start." And she walked out of the portrait hole.

James noticed her, and taking the chance to escape from Sirius's blathering about his new girlfriend, jumped up and followed.

"So, Evans," he said, once he'd made it out of the portrait hole behind the redhead. "You going to tryouts?"

She looked at him petulantly. "I don't plan ahead like that. I'll come if I come."

"Well, everyone's going to watch." He reconsidered. "Everyone who matters, anyway."

"And I suppose that I don't matter if I decide not to come?" she snapped.

"Well, no, you…matter," James replied lamely.

Lily considered what he said, and they walked in silence for a few minutes, only speaking to tell wanderers that it was almost curfew.

"Well," James said awkwardly a while later, "Gwen's going to try and Seek, so if you want to come and watch…I mean, I'll be playing, too."

Lily looked at him askance. "Does it matter?"

"Well, no…"

"And it's not like Nelson needs my help to play," Lily said, and suddenly an idea struck her like a freight train, only without killing her.

"You call her Nelson now?"

"Why shouldn't I? We aren't close or anything." The last thing Lily wanted to do was talk about Gwen Nelson with James Potter, and she was doing it.

Damn.

"She's really great, though," James argued, and Lily almost gagged as she pictured his eyes clouding over as he said it, though she dared not look for fear of actually vomiting.

"I'm sure." Lilly coughed. "Well, Potter, I'll go off and take the dungeons and the first three floors if you'll cover the top four. Meet here at five till eleven, then?"

"Well, okay." James looked reluctant. "See you."

Lily went off down the stairs, a plan working its way through her mind. A plan of most indecency.

* * *

"Lily, please don't," Rosie said as the two girls walked speedily towards the Quidditch field, the reason for their pace being that Lily was trying to shake off her nagging friend, who followed.

"Rosie, stay out."

"But you could _hurt_ her!"

"And that would be bad…how?" Lily quickened her pace, but the taller girl easily caught up and jumped in front of her.

"Lily, you just…can't. You're Head Girl."

The redhead pushed past her friend. "I won't get caught. I mean, she has to be bad at _something._"

Rosie let out a cry of frustration. "Lily, stop, please. You have no right. And I'm the Captain. You're not going to mess up my team."

"So you're going to tell, are you?" Lily growled, rounding on her friend. "Listen, Rosie, I'm seventeen. I'm of age. And I am not in the mood to be told what I can and cannot do, especially by someone who read my open diary! I make my own decisions now, and if I get in trouble, so be it. Respect my choices." And she promptly turned, her long, thick braid smacking her friend in the face, and tromped away through the dewy grass.

Rosie showed no intentions of continuing to argue, only slung her broom over her shoulder and trudged after.

It was the second Saturday of term—the Saturday of Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts. There were many students out on the field on this particularly wet, foggy, and dewy morning, some coming to try out for the vacant spots (one Chaser, a Beater, and the Seeker), some coming to try and take the long-held positions of previous players.

Lily Evans pulled the hood of her Muggle jacket over her head, drew her wand, and edged up the side of the locker room building located just off the edge of the field. All of the students who were going to try out had deposited their brooms against the wall there while they waited for Rosie to get onto the field and give her talk (the reason the players had not kept their brooms with them during the exercises Lily knew not, but was very relieved that they hadn't), giving Lily the chance to look over the models and find the one she wanted. She had snooped earlier in the seventh-year girls' dormitory, supposedly waiting for Rosie to finish showering, and found Gwen's broom—the _Comet 216_. (Except Rosie had been looking for her in the Head Girl's dormitory—that's where she read Lily's diary.) Lily was unable to do anything with the broom then because Gwen had just entered the dormitory.

Lily noticed one broom standing at a distance from the others, and saw that it was, in fact, a _Comet 216_. Jumping forward in excitement and anxiety, she grasped the handle, looked about herself to be sure nobody was looking, and muttered, "_Exsisto _

_Vomica_!"

Satisfied with her spell, and not feeling a bit guilty about it (most unusual for the rule-abiding Head Girl), Lily turned and skipped off towards the stands to watch the effects of her scheme unravel.

Apparently, Rosie had just finished talking to the students who were going to try out, and she spotted Lily walking past as they all started stretching out as a group, a triumphant smile playing on the redhead's lips. The brunette shook her head in disappointment and continued stretching with the others as Lily found a seat in the stands next to Remus.

Once they had all finished their stretching, they bustled to the locker room wall to retrieve their brooms. There was too much of a throng to tell if Gwen had received her broom yet, though she was not a bit unsure—after all, how many people in the world would have the same broom as Gwen had? Especially if she had bought it in the United States.

They started by choosing the two Beaters; Rosie had set up a difficult challenge for each person trying out for the two positions. In the end, the old Beater, Preston Shepherd, and a new one, Derek Burke ended up with the positions, and then they began by choosing the new Seeker.

Rosie and the two new Beaters who were now supposed to be helping her instruct the tryouts each had a bucket of golf balls and began throwing golf balls up into the air and out every which way while the eligible Seekers raced off after them. Lily noticed with disappointment that Gwen's broom seemed to be having no trouble, even though she had jinxed it, because the blonde girl became a blur as she darted after the little white balls, catching any one she pursued. At the end, Rosie counted up the number of golf balls each person had caught and recorded it; Lily noticed with a sinking feeling that Gwen had caught the most.

Next, Rosie explained that she had released three Snitches at the beginning of tryouts, and how they were all supposed to try and find them. When the three golden balls were caught, one of those three people was then chosen for Seeker by how impressively they had performed the golf ball task. The students then tore off, all in a mad hunt for the Snitches. As Lily watched Gwen cut easily through the air on her obviously safe broom, she began to panic.

_What if she knew what I was doing and knew how to reverse it? What if she'll tell on me?_ And as much as Lily hated to think it, she did; _And what if they don't just make _Comet 216 _models in America?_

Gwen caught a Snitch first; the other two were caught a while later by a sixth year boy and a third year boy. Rosie looked over her papers and announced to the crowd and to the students who were trying out:

"Our new Seeker is Gwen Nelson!"

Lily almost hurled over the edge of the stands. Or on Remus. Or on Sirius, who sat next to him.

Below, James's eyes flicked in Lily's direction, but only for a millisecond, for now it was time for Chaser tryouts. Hoisting his own _Comet 216_ over his shoulder, he congratulated Gwen, high-fiving her, and then mounting.

Rosie flew to one end of the field to guard those goal posts, and three people were supposed to try and work as a team to get the Quaffle through as many times as possible.

You can imagine how put out Lily was when James was barely three feet off the ground and promptly thrown off his broom.

Next time, he wasn't so lucky. His broom bucked wildly as soon as he threw one leg over, wiggling out from in between his legs and zooming up to whack him in the face with its handle.

James Potter passed out in the middle of the Quidditch field.

Lily ducked down on the bench, so far that her back was on the seat, and more leg was sticking out in front of her than she knew what to do with.

"Did you do that, Lily?" a soft voice murmured into her ear.

"Remus!" she exclaimed, gasping, righting herself in her chair. "What should I do?"

The two looked out onto the field, where Madam Hooch could be seen inspecting the broom, while the two new Beaters hoisted James up and carried him off the field to lie on a bench on the edge of the field.

"You should tell," Remus replied. "They'll find out anyway. That's what Sirius says, and he knows all about rule breaking."

"Sirius?" Lily hissed, leaning forward to look past the werewolf. "You know, too?"

"Who doesn't! You're over there acting like somebody just put a Bat-Bogey Hex on you, and you expect us, the Marauders, first-class rule breakers, discoverers of the—"

"The point, Padfoot," Remus interrupted gently.

"Oh, right. You expect us not to realize that you, Lily Evans, Head Girl, former two-year prefect, founder of the—"

"The point, Black," Lily interrupted roughly.

"You expect us not to realize that you did it?"

"Go tell," Remus informed her.

Lily drew in her breath and stood, hoisting her bag of books higher on her shoulder (despite the fact that it was a Saturday; she had planned to study after this small errand) and descending from the stands.

On the field, Madam Hooch was talking with Rosie in low tones, and as Lily approached she caught bits like, "jinxed broom" and "Veritaserum if we really need it," until the two spotted her coming and stopped talking. Rosie gave Lily a look of surprise, then muttered that she was going to try and rouse James, and was off.

"Miss Evans?" Madam Hooch inquired, bearing no suspect of the Head Girl, her inclination getting the best of her judgment.

"Madam Hooch," Lily began, clearing her throat, which had caught at some point during the journey from her seat to the field. She wasn't sure how to go about admitting to something like this, because she had been in trouble only a couple of times in her life, but swallowed hard and said, "I did it."

A look of surprise crossed her face, but Madam Hooch was not one to not take a student seriously, and she replied, "You jinxed this broom."

"No, I—" Lily swallowed. "I wanted Potter to…to do really well today, and I thought that maybe…maybe if his _broom_…well, what I did was stupid, because I obviously didn't know, er, the right spell." Lily knew it was a lame ending, but she figured that, had her wishes been ill, she would have gotten in more trouble than if she had hoped the best for James.

"I see." Madam Hooch surveyed her with knowing eyes; how could Lily think that a member of the staff would believe that she had tried to help James Potter? Lily cursed herself. "Well, cheating is prohibited at Hogwarts, but since you have shown exemplary behavior in the past, I'm only going to take twenty-five points from Gryffindor and give you a detention on Saturday, October the fifth."

"Thank you, Madam Hooch. I swear it won't happen again."

The flying instructor nodded primly and departed towards James, who had come to and now needed an explanation.

Lily almost left as the Quidditch practice commenced once more, but she supposed that she owed James an apology, so she waited, leaning against the locker room wall.

_Damn. Two apologies for James Potter in a month._

Finally, Lily heard Rosie's voice ring across the field, shouting, "All right, everybody's tried out for Chaser, then?" When there were no objections, she continued. "Our three Chasers for this year will then be Carrie Schweisenburger, new to the team, and returning Chasers Molly Jackson and James Potter."

There was an uproar at this, and Lily caught certain objections that drifted across the field, like:

"He fell off his broom!"

"Didn't even _try out_!"

"In the air for two seconds!"

"Fell off his broom!"

That was before Rosie took full advantage of her powerful vocal chords, her shout drowning out the others.

"Yes, I know, he was in the air for two seconds, and that he was knocked out and couldn't try out again," she yelled. "But I know what happened today with James Potter, and the rest of you don't, so shut your mouths. Plus, I've been on this team with him for a few years now, and I've seen him fly, and he's going to be Chaser. And for those two seconds in the air, he was _great_. The end."

Once it was obvious that Rosie's tirade was finished, there was an outbreak of muttering as everyone drifted from the field. Nobody looked in Lily's direction, and she was grateful that Madam Hooch had not told any onlookers what had happened with James's broom.

Lily peered over to where James was sitting on his bench and spotted Gwen doting over his bruised forehead. Indignant, the redhead marched across the field towards James.

He spotted her coming, and stood up, swaying slightly, as Gwen squeaked and gripped his arm.

"James. I mean—Potter," Lily said once she had stopped in front of him. She lifted one foot to scratch her other calve awkwardly, giving Gwen a meaningful glance that the blonde obviously didn't catch. "I suppose Madam Hooch told you what…er, happened?"

"Yeah," he said, making no move to remove his arm from Gwen's grasp.

Lily took a deep breath, possibly her hundredth of the day. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay. You were trying to help, right?" James gave her a look that said he didn't buy the story.

Lily didn't want James to be mad at her. She didn't hate him. And she didn't want her apology to be for nothing.

"Are they fixing your _Comet 216_?" Lily asked, realizing that she probably sounded stupid using the name of the model instead of the word "broom."

"Ye—" James began, but was interrupted by Gwen's squeal.

"That's what you fly! I fly a _Comet 216_, too! My grandfather, well, he knows how to spoil—after all, he did marry a half-veela, but…"

As Gwen rambled, James looked at Lily in surprise, and then a look of realization crossed his face, only to be replaced with a cocky smile.

Lily realized then that she probably shouldn't have given away her intentions to him, but had no way of communicating that she didn't mean what he thought.

"…So he gave me this broom before I left and said, "Gwennie, now you—'"

"I'm, er, going to go and talk to Rosie," Lily said, interrupting Gwen and receiving a scathing look in return. Lily turned on her heel and walked to her friend shyly.

"I'm glad you told," the brunette girl said, throwing her broom over her shoulder.

"I dunno if I am," Lily admitted. "I have a detention."

"Oh, no!" Rosie said sarcastically. "This is the first, I'll bet."

"Well, no…" Lily scratched the back of her neck. "I punched Potter in fourth year—you remember that…and there was last year, when I accidentally got too frustrated with Potter and—"

"Potter, Potter…" Rosie smiled. "Oy—Potter!" She walked over to the boy, who was still listening to Gwen. Lily reluctantly followed.

"You should go up to the Hospital Wing, see if Madam Pomfrey sees anything wrong."

James nodded, and as the two girls said goodbye and turned to leave, Lily heard him say, "So, Gwen, d'you want to come with me on the first Hogsmeade trip?"

Lily tripped over her own foot and fell flat on the ground.

There was a shriek, and then a thousand 'Yes's in a row from Gwen, and before any of that began, Lily felt her feet picking herself up off the ground without any of Rosie's help, and then carrying her body away faster than they usually did, and then she was running, her braid whipping wildly in the chill air, and she did not stop running until she was safely up on the seventh floor, in Gryffindor Tower, behind the locked door of the Head Girl's dormitory.

And then a scream of frustration emitted from her mouth, and Lily wondered how something so small and petty could make her feel so miserable.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed, but whatever. Not so much Gwen in this one, I hope everyone is pleased to know!

So, this chapter wasn't the best, but they should get better. I'm thinking that every other chapter is going to be good, so next one should be worth reading!

Virtual cake is now being passed out to all my chapter two reviewers, baked with love.

Stick around, and virtual ice cream for all chapter three reviewers!

-Carrie!

(Why, yes, I did name a Chaser after myself.)


	4. This Feeling That I Get

**Disclaimer:** I own Gwen. And a right bit of good that useless git willdo me.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**This Feeling That I Get**

Within the next week, the whole school knew that James Potter, one of the most popular and attractive boys at Hogwarts, had asked out Gwen Nelson, the prettiest girl at Hogwarts.

"You are _so_ jealous," Rosie told Lily bluntly the morning of Saturday, October fifth as they ate breakfast.

Lily, whose piece of sausage had made it halfway to her mouth on her fork, froze and looked across the table at her smirking friend. "Excuse me?" she asked, but with more of a declarative tone than a questioning one.

"You're jealous of Gwen Nelson because James Potter asked her out."

Lily's fork clattered onto her plate, right into her jam, splattering it on her white sweater. She apparently had either not noticed or didn't care. "Why would I be jealous?"

Rosie sighed and set down her Quidditch magazine. "This is why. Potter has asked you out probably every day since fifth year." As Lily opened her mouth to protest, Rosie raised a hand and added, "And don't say that he didn't over the summer. I know that he figured out how to use the fellytone or tellyphone or whatever in the name of Merlin's beard it was, and he called you at your house." Rosie took a bite of egg and then continued. "You said no every time. _Every time_. You never went out with him. You never gave him the chance. And now that he's doing something with himself—I mean, hey, you have to give guys some leeway. They can only go so far without a snog—you're getting angry. Because you want him. Now that you can't have him."

Lily gaped at her friend. She turned pink. She looked around to make sure nobody had heard what Rosie had said. And then she gathered up her senses, picked up her napkin, and began wiping the jam drops from her sweater.

"Er, Lily?" the brunette girl asked.

Lily stood up from her seat, gave Rosie a biting look, and said, "You are off your rocker. You are _insane_. I have a detention to get to. Goodbye." And she promptly marched out of the Great Hall, still wiping her sweater with the napkin, until she finally shouted, "Blast it!" and got rid of the stains with her wand.

That morning, McGonagall had given her a note that stated that her detention would be in the Charms classroom with Professor Flitwick. Lily was curious enough about the wizened Charms professor agreeing to do a detention that she hastened along the corridors.

Professor Flitwick was not there when she entered, so she found herself a seat and tapped her fingers absentmindedly on the desk in front of her. She wasn't too upset about it—it wasn't like she was missing a Hogsmeade trip or anything, and it wasn't that early in the morning, and it was supposed to be only be an hour and a half long. Plus, it was just her and Professor Flitwick—was she honestly going to be afraid of the tiny, amiable Charms professor?

Lily's relaxed thoughts deserted her once Sirius Black swaggered in, his hair looking just as perfect as always, with a bit of smudged lipstick on the corner of his mouth from an earlier broom cupboard rendezvous. He fell gracefully into a seat two desks down from Lily, and she looked at him with a horrified expression.

She was even doing math in her head.

Lily hated math.

Lily + Sirius + an hour and a half of detention bad.

It was worse than bad. She had finally discovered the place called hell.

"All right, Lily?"

Lily knew that secretly meant 'Now you _really_ regret trying to screw up my best friend's girlfriend.'

No, not his girlfriend. His _friend_. Whom he happened to be taking to Hogmeade.

"I'm, er, fine." She paused, attempting to tap her fingers absentmindedly on the desk again. But it wasn't absentmindedly. Her mind was present—very, very present and aware of her situation.

What's worse is that Lily couldn't even _tap_ her fingers.

"Why are you here?" she blurted.

Sirius brushed a bit of hair behind one ear. "McGonagall caught me in a broom cupboard with that Ravenclaw girl, Charlene Vance, the same day of Quidditch tryouts. And she thought it would be a—ah, what was it?— 'worthwhile experience' if we served in the same detention."

"Ah." Lily nodded and looked straight ahead, trying to tap her foot. But her foot was already twitching—along with her left eye. Her left eye and her right foot always twitched when she was nervous or dreading something.

"Oh, Black, about that whole broom cupboard thing," Lily began, slowly turning to look back at him, hoping her twitching left eye wasn't too noticeable, "you have a bit of lipstick on the right corner of your mouth."

"Oh. Thank you." He wiped it away. "And I wish you wouldn't call me 'Black.' It's so…dreary. Call me Sirius."

"Okay, then…_Sirius_."

Just then, Professor Flitwick came into the room, or, at least, his hair did, because the pile of white curls atop his head were all they saw above the desks on his journey from the door to his seat in the front.

"All right, Miss Evans, Mr. Black," he squeaked. "You two are supposed to scrub in and out of the desks. That is all. I'm going to go talk to Professor Sprout again, and I'll be back shortly." He paused. "And, eh, no magic."

Then he conjured up a bucket of soapy water and two rags and left.

The two grabbed their rags and started cleaning the desks. At first, Lily wasn't too thrilled about cleaning desks without magic, but she watched Sirius lazily pull out his own wand and start blasting sticky old wads of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum off the bottoms of the desks.

"What are you doing?" Lily demanded. "We aren't allowed to use magic."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Oh, _come on_, what's Flitwick gonna do? Put a Cheering Charm on us?"

Lily shrugged and continued scrubbing her first desk rather ineffectively as Sirius moved on to his fourth. She shot him occasional looks of disapproval, but finally looked to the door, which was closed, and produced her own wand. Sirius grinned.

Professor Flitwick entered only once after that, and they heard the quick patter of his feet before he managed to get into the classroom, so it was easy enough to pocket their wands and pretend to be using rags again. It turned out that the little old Professor only needed his lesson planner before leaving with a cheery goodbye.

They finished within thirty minutes, after successfully cleaning out all the desks, and now Lily had an hour to just sit idly with Sirius Black.

Damn.

Sirius didn't seem to keen on talking, because he kept Summoning various objects around the room, only to Banish them again. He made water spray from the tip of his wand, and he even Transfigured Professor Flitwick's desk into a hippopotamus, before quickly changing it back.

A thought grew in the back of Lily's mind, but she pushed it away. It returned. She tried to think only of schoolwork, or of the Heads meeting they would be having with the prefects the next day, or something like that.

But she was sitting here with Sirius Black, James Potter's best friend, and the thought would not, _could_ not go away.

She decided to speak warily.

"So, er, Black—I mean, Sirius." He looked up at her curiously. "I, er…wanted to ask you about James. I mean—Potter."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Lily knew she had phrased that wrong.

Shite.

"I—I mean," she said, her palms suddenly becoming ponds. She had to assume he was going to tell James—_Potter,_ she meant, everything that she said. "I mean…he's just been acting odd lately…you know, whenever I do see him. Like Heads meetings."

Sirius raised both eyebrows this time and smirked. "Look, Lily, if you're asking me for advice on how to get in the broom closet with him—"

"No!" she gasped, almost slipping from her chair.

Sirius's face was overcome with a look of rapture.

"I…I just…" Lily bit her lip. "I just…Gwen Nelson."

"Beg pardon?"

"Nelson. I mean—who is she? Does anyone know?"

The boy's face grew sour. "Believe me, spend two minutes in her prescence and you'll know exactly who she is."

"Oh." Lily tried approaching from a different direction. "Does James like her?"

Lily regretted saying it that way.

Sirius grinned. "Well, let me just say this: before he met her, James had liked you since the first day of fifth year. And so he still went out with other girls—blimey, he went out with loads of other girls. Those were the Golden Days. He still asked you out all the time, even if he did have a Hogsmeade trip planned with someone else." Sirius shrugged. "Anyway, so about halfway through sixth year, he decided that he liked you too much, and that the other girls weren't enough to get his mind off you. So he stopped dating and continued to ask you out every day. And you never gave him the chance. So now he's finally found himself another girl, and he's happy about it. And I'm happy for him, too. He lost his marbles over you before that."

That was probably the most informative thing Sirius had ever said to anyone.

Lily felt something in her stomach…something _unpleasant_.

Guilt.

"Oh. Well…"

Except at that moment Professor Flitwick bustled in to tell them their hour and a half was finished.

"Later, Lily," Sirius said smoothly, standing up and sauntering out of the room. "Oy! Charlene!" And he was gone.

Lily sighed and meandered down the hallway, so lost in thought that she didn't even confiscate the Fire-Breathing Boomerang that somebody was tossing around. She was guilty that she hadn't given James a chance before, but there was something else…something Lily had really never thought about before.

"Oh, Merlin," she muttered, and then quickened her pace so much that she was running down the stairs, almost forgetting the missing step, out of the castle, and out onto the Quidditch pitch.

On the field, the Gryffindor team was practicing, and had thirty minutes left. Lily paced and checked her watch and paced some more, then finally sat down, only to stand up again, check her watch, and pace some more.

Finally, the practice was over, and she heard Rosie shout, "Okay, everyone, Monday afternoon!" That was before Lily grabbed her once she was within arm's reach in the air.

"Rosie. I have to talk to you."

Rosie raised her eyebrows but consented to follow Lily behind the stands. Lily shifted her weight from one foot to the next, watching the passing Quidditch players, including James and Gwen, who were talking with one another.

Once Lily was sure they were alone, she looked back at Rosie and took a deep breath.

"Rosie. This is bad."

"What is? Merlin's warts, Lily, I want to see if lunch is ready yet." But she saw her friend's face and looked at her seriously. "Okay. Tell me."

"You were right." Lily closed her eyes, as though in pain, and opened them only to say, "I'm falling for James Potter."

* * *

**A/N:** Hallo! Virtual ice cream for past reviewers!

Anyway.

Chapter four yaaay! And not very much Gwen in this one, either. I promise, she'll be around more in upcoming chapters. This isn't all going to be from Lily's point of view; I'm hoping to do some more James and Marauder scenes. Because they're just that cool.

I'm thinking this fic is going to be short, like 15 chapters maybe? Possibly shorter. I write fast-paced stuff.

And I might also write a oneshot soon, so stick around and see what kinds of things I have coming up!

Virtual...eh...Hershey bars for reviewers!

--Your friendly neighborhood superhero,

Carrie!


	5. A New Hope

**Disclaimer:** I think that somebody should make up a song about not owning the Harry Potter books.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**A New Hope**

Lily mulled over everything when she went to sleep that night. How could she start fancying Potter? He was…_Potter_! He was arrogant and annoying and trouble-making and…

_So_ wonderful.

But _how_ could he be dating Gwen Nelson! Despite the fact that she was beautiful and intelligent and an Animagi (she had not hesitated to reveal it to them all in Transfiguration one day; apparently, Gwen had a heart tattooed on her left arse cheek, because when she was a unicorn it was very obvious), she was also evil and conniving and annoying and self-centered!

Gwen was so vain. Once, when Lily was sitting in the Gryffindor seventh year girls' dormitory on Rosie's bed, playing Wizards' Chess with her, Lily noticed that Gwen had been standing in front of the full-length mirror next to her bed for fifteen minutes straight. Looking only at herself.

"I wonder if she wears makeup to hide warts or anything," Rosie had muttered to Lily, and the two girls collapsed in silent giggles.

Lily decided that it was out of the question to tell James anything. He was not, _not_ going to go for an average-looking red-haired girl with green eyes who was highly temperamental after he'd been with _Gwen Nelson_. And Lily wasn't going to humiliate herself trying to get him to do just that.

She could try to get Gwen to leave. But James might be in despair and not want to date anyone else. But still, at least Lily wouldn't have to watch him dote over her all the time.

Or…

Lily smiled from underneath the covers of her four-poster double bed in her quiet Head Girl dormitory. She had an idea.

* * *

"Who do you think?" she asked Rosie, slathering jam onto her toast. 

The two girls were looking around at all the seventh year boys in the Great Hall. Rosie felt silly, because she had a date with an attractive Hufflepuff seventh year already, but Lily insisted on her help.

"How about that Ravenclaw boy, Paul Adams?" Rosie asked. "He's the Quidditch Captain of Ravenclaw—plays Seeker, you know. He's a prefect, rarely gets in trouble…girls like him. You know him?"

Lily was surprised that Rosie had chosen for her a member of another Quidditch team, because Rosie was a very competitive and biased person when it came to sports—quite unlike her usual demeanor.

Lily supposed that she was putting aside all of that for the good of mankind.

Not that Lily trying to get back at James was all for the good of mankind.

Though, really, it was. Because when Lily Evans was mad, everyone paid.

"Yeah, I know him. I met him in a prefect meeting."

"And…?"

"He was nice."

Rosie sighed in exasperation and slapped her hand to her forehead. "Okay. Let's look at it this way. You're in love with James—"

"I never said I was in love with him!"

Rosie raised an eyebrow. "So this _isn't_ in the name of love? That's pathetic, Lily."

"I know. Keep going."

"Okay, so you have a _fancy_ for James Potter, and now you need to find yourself a new boy. Instead of thinking of it as a boy that you want only to _get back at_ Potter with, think of it as a boy that you want to get _over_ Potter with."

"Oh. So I was being selfish?"

"No," Rosie replied. "And yes. Just try not to use the poor bloke. Maybe you can forget about Potter while you're with him and live happily ever after."

"Yeah…" Lily said. "Yes! Okay. That's good."

Rosie nodded in approval.

"Er, so, Rosie… How do I go up to him?"

Rosie smacked her hand to her forehead again.

* * *

Lily (and Rosie) had planned it all out. That Tuesday afternoon, when they had Double Charms with the Ravenclaws, Lily waited by the classroom door for Paul Adams to go in, and then followed him. 

He found himself a seat, and Lily hovered over the one to the left of him. "Hello. Could I sit here?"

He looked up at her and smiled—attractive smile, she noted. "Yeah, sure."

She took the seat, slung her bag over the bag of the chair, and slid her textbook and some spare parchment into the desk. "I'm Lily Evans. We've met for prefect meetings, but haven't really talked before."

"Paul Adams," he said, holding out a hand to shake, which she did. "You're the Head Girl."

Just then, the late bell rang, and Professor Flitwick tapped his wand on the desk for attention and announced that they would be performing minor Memory Charms on their partners. (Partners in Professor Flitwick's class were determined by who was sitting next to whom, and desks in his classroom were grouped in twos. So, naturally, Lily and Paul were partnered.)

"But, of course," the little old Professor added, "you will also learn how to undo the Charm, which is very simple on minor Memory Charms, which only take away memory of the past hour. All you have to do is—"

Lily already knew. She'd read it in the text. So she took this time to study Paul. He was tall, even while sitting, and Lily guessed that he was only a little bit shorter than James, if not the same height. He had neat, light brown hair and curious blue eyes, along with a smattering of cute, light freckles across his nose and upper cheeks. He listened dutifully to Professor Flitwick's speech, turning to the necessary pages in his book to further his learning.

Lily looked over at James, who was sitting further back in class with Gwen. He had amused the blonde with something, and she was stifling a giggle. James raised his eyes and met Lily's, but for only a part of a nanosecond, for she turned around abruptly to face the front.

Once they were given the incantations for taking and restoring a small amount of memory, the partners all stood and faced one another.

"Ladies first," Paul said, grinning.

_He _is_ very polite,_ Lily noted.

She successfully took and restored his memory, being the Charms geek that she was, and when he lowered his wand after restoring her own memory, there was a gasp from the back of the room, and Lily turned to see Gwen faint.

Right into James's arms.

_She aimed that perfectly before she was out cold, _Lily mused angrily.

"Er—professor," James said, holding Gwen's upper body off the floor.

"Oh, dear! Miss Nelson!" Professor Flitwick bounced forward and felt her forehead. "It seems that you took too much memory, Mr. Potter."

"How much, exactly?"

"About ten years' worth. She needs to go to the Hospital Wing." At the astounded look on the tall boy's face, he added, "It's nothing Madam Pomfrey can't restore! You aren't yet a fully trained Obliviator, so the spell didn't wipe all of her memory. Just Levitate her and take her to the Hospital Wing, please, Mr. Potter."

But James had already scooped up the rest of Gwen in his arms, her head resting on his chest. Lily felt jealousy claw at her insides as James nodded to Professor Flitwick, who was already on his way back to his spot in the front of the room, and left.

Lily coughed and turned back to Paul, who still looked surprised. "But Flitwick told him to Levitate her."

She almost rolled her eyes. "Potter is just showing off." _But that's not all he's doing._

Paul shrugged, and they continued their Memory Charms until the bell rang, talking casually in between memory wipes about their favorite classes, teachers, N.E.W.T.s, and even Quidditch, a subject to which Paul contributed more.

The bell rang, and they left class together to go to dinner. Lily was wondering if she should ask him to Hogsmeade, trying to remember what Rosie had told her to say…but before she could—

"Hey, Lily, go to Hogsmeade with me this Halloween?" Paul asked, grinning down at her as they entered the Great Hall.

"Er—yes! I will. Thank you for asking."

"Okay then."

"Okay."

"Okay."

The two of them stood there awkwardly for a moment, and Lily was just about to say she had to get to her own table, James entered the Great Hall from behind them.

"Ah, evening Evans. Adams." He looked at the other boy with raised eyebrows. "Having a nice little chat?"

"Yeah, we were. I'd better go, though. See you, Lily."

He walked to the Ravenclaw table to join his friends (he had quite a few of those, Lily noticed), leaving James and Lily alone together.

"You're friendly with Adams?" James asked.

"We're going to Hogsmeade together," Lily said, turning and starting for the Gryffindor table.

"You what?" he asked incredulously, following.

"Hogsmeade, Potter."

He paused. "Why?"

"I don't know, Potter, why do people usually go to Hogsmeade together?"

"To snog in Madam Puddifoot's. Hey, I was just thinking, how does the name 'Lily Adams' sound? Sort of sounds the same, doesn't it?"

"Speaking of that, where's the new Mrs. Potter?"

"Oh, she's just having a pleasant time in the Hospital Wing," James said sarcastically. "Staying for observation."

"Yeah, I bet now she regrets faking it."

Before James could reply, Lily found a seat as far away from the one Sirius had already reserved for him. James flopped into said seat angrily.

"Potatoes?" Sirius inquired, gesturing to the food already set around them. "Or maybe some pork chops. They're excellent today."

"This wasn't supposed to happen," James growled.

"What, the food tasting good?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of corn.

James banged his head against his knuckles.

"What wasn't supposed to happen, Prongs?" Remus asked.

"Lily," James said, gesturing vaguely down the table at the red-haired girl. "She's got a date."

"Who is it?" Peter chimed in.

"_Paul Adams_," James snarled.

Sirius made a strange noise beside him and was suddenly beating his chest, wheezing. Finally, a brussel sprout launched itself from his throat and struck the passing Severus Snape in the head. The greasy boy made to pull out his wand, but spotted Professor Slughorn nearby and walked on.

"Paul Adams? She's going out with _him_! He's been Ravenclaw Seeker since second year! She can't do that!"

"Well, she is. And this wasn't supposed to happen. Now she'll go fall for him and—"

"Wait, Prongs," Remus interrupted. "You keep saying it wasn't supposed to happen, like you had a plan. What is the plan, and how was this not supposed to happen?"

James sighed and drove the heels of his palms into his closed eyes. "I don't like Gwen. I like Lily."

"Ah." Remus nodded. Sirius threw up his hands in exasperation. Peter squeaked.

"I mean, Gwen is okay once you get used to her. But Lily…wow. I just. I want _her_, not Gwen! And I thought that maybe dating Gwen would make her like me, but obviously it isn't."

"You're completely wasting an attractive girl," Sirius muttered, shaking his head.

"Have you thought of maybe telling Lily how you feel?" Remus suggested, taking on his usual helpful tone. "Instead of just asking her out, I mean. If you tell her why you like her, then maybe she'll like you back."

"No, no," James said, kneading his hands into face even more. "She likes_ him _now."

"Look, Prongs," Sirius said, throwing an arm around his friend's shoulder. "You know how girls are. She's probably trying to make you jealous back."

James lifted his head hopefully. "You think so? Hey, maybe that's it! Maybe she really does think I'm dashing. I'm a genius!" Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head amusedly. "Well, wait," James said, dropping his head back into his hands. "Lily's brutally honest. She would have told me."

Sirius made to say something else, but James stood up and walked from the Great Hall, the Marauders looking after. But there were also a pair of green eyes following him.

James was completely doomed.

* * *

**A/N:** I think somebody asked for a fainting Gwen? Well, I tried to fit it in as best I could (good idea, really), but I dunno. I know it's random and has nothing to do with the story, but Mary Sues DO faint all the time. 

This chapter was hastily written and sort of...guh, so I hope you didn't expect something great.


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